I have no idea how many salespeople read sales books. The number that is tossed around is that some number over 90 percent have never read a single sales book. If that’s true, it’s a sad statistic. It also may be an indictment of those of us who write books for not writing something salespeople want to read.
There is a reason I print workbooks and create videos to accompany my books: I want the salesperson and their sales manager to be able to use the book to improve their performance.
In both of my launches, we put packages together for teams. The idea was that the book should be a program. That program contains the ideas that shape the mind set, the strategies that build the skill sets, and come with the tools necessary to be able to execute the content between the pages of the book.
The first book, The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need, is a competency model, containing the 9 attributes and behaviors that make up the mind set necessary to succeed in sales, as well as the 8 skills that are also required. That is 17 chapters, and the bulk preorder for teams included an editable PDF workbook and 17 videos for the sales manager to use to guide their team through the book. The people that used it this way raved about their results. So, we did it again.
The second book, The Lost Art of Closing: Winning the 10 Commitments That Drive Sales, followed the same model. Why change something that worked so well the first time? The bulk buy orders for this book included an editable PDF workbook and 10 videos, one for each of the 10 commitments.
And here is the thing. I did this so that your salespeople would need to read the book to participate in the group meetings being led by their sales manager, with the sales manager using the videos as part of a weekly (or bi-weekly) meeting.
When I say that I pitched the book wrong, I mean it. I pitched these books wrong because I did not make a big enough deal about the ability to hold salespeople (and their managers) accountable for actually putting the content to use.
This is a big deal to me. I have given up reading books that don’t provide me with the ability to improve my life. I read slower. I take more notes. I listen to the audio book at the same time I am reading the book. I want a return on my investment.
To this end, look for an email from me offering a new program around these two books. If you are not on my email list, use the contact page to reach out, if you want to help your salespeople read, learn, and improve their results.
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